Washington D.C. Death Metal trio GENOCIDE PACT come in with a follow-up to their 2015 effort "Forged Through Domination," titled "Order of Torment," the latter being released via Relapse Records. You know me, I'm a pretty big Death Metal skeptic, but that's slowly starting to change, and this album just pushed me even more into the middle zone.

I have to say, "Conquered and Disposed" is easily the best Death Metal song I've heard yet, and oh boy, if it gets even better, I may actually legit get into Death Metal. What I noticed from the start (and what's true for all of the album) is that the vocals - which I usually hate - while not particularly enjoyable didn't bother me at all, for several reasons. A) There are just as much instrumental parts on this LP as there are sections with vocals B) You can actually tell that the sound comes from the guy's mouth, not his ass and C) Because of the way it's mixed, not so loud that you can't even hear the instruments. (The case with most DM album's I had the "pleasure" of listening to). Speaking of the production, it's pretty awesome, it gives the music a very menacing and scary, yet intense and brutal feel, kinda like actually being in hell.

My favourite aspect of the record was the drumming, it takes the leading role and wears it very well, driving the songwriting excitingly. Connor Donegan is probably among the most fun drummers I've heard recently. However, this LP is also not perfect. My only major complaint could be the switches between the slower, a bit Doom-ish parts and the faster, a bit more typical tremolo-focused ones. I'm not really a fan of slow metal music, so naturally I didn't like when the songs broke down into more guitar-centric sections, but the actual problem is that the changes aren't dynamic or feel organic at all. It really feels like "hey, now switch to a slow part! How? I don't know, just figure it out."

But that doesn't take away that much from the quality of "Order of Torment." I would wholeheartedly recommend this album, and to quote General Grievous "It will make a fine addition to my collection." Added to Spotify library.